"What color did you wear for you wedding dress, Arrah?" Laura asked.
"I wore a tan dress." Arrah smiles. "That reminds me of a poem."
"Married in white, you have chosen right.
Married in blue, your love will always be true.
Married in pearl, you will live in a whirl.
Married in brown, you will live out of town.
Married in red, you will wish yourself dead.
Married in yellow, ashamed of your fellow.
Married in green, ashamed to be seen.
Married in pink, of you only he'll think.
Married in gray, you will go far away.
Married in black, you will wish yourself back."
"I wore a light green dress for my wedding," said Laura who glanced over at Almanzo. "No Manly, I was not ashamed to be seen at our wedding." She said, patting his knee.
"Good...'cause ya had me worried there for a second." He said, laughing.
"Mine was a dark tan, almost brown, but not quite...It suited me well. It's one of my best dresses now."
"Hey, there's no rhyme for a tan dress in that poem." Almanzo said, grinning.
Arrah thought for a moment till her eyes once again had their special sparkle in them. "I've got it!...Married in tan, proud of your man!"
"Very clever." said Cage, flashing a smile at his young wife.
"And it's true too." Arrah kissed his forehead. "I love you." The clock on the Wilder's fireplace mantle strikes midnight. "Well if you'll excuse us, we'll be heading up to bed. Goodnight Laura, Almanzo."
"Goodnight." Laura said to both Cage and Arrah.
"I expect you'l be leaving in the morning?" Almanzo questioned.
"That's what we're planning on doing." Cage said.
"Oh." Almanzo and Laura's hearts sank. They didn't want the Lays to leave. They became fast friends and even though they had just met one another, it seemed like they had known each other their whole lives. Deep in their hearts, Cage and Arrah knew it too.
The young couple went up to the room that the Wilder's had made up for them and began to get ready for bed. Arrah took off her rust-colored dress, unbuttoning each gold button, going all the way up to the dress' collar. She hung the dress on a peg and placed her boots on the floor below it, and standing in her petticoats and underthings, she silently admired the dress. Her mother, Josephine had helped her make it after Arrah saw a simaliar dress in their local mercantile, and she fell in love with it. The sleeves went all the way to her wrists, the bodice was tight-fitting, and the hem of the dress went to her ankles, to the top of her black lace-up boots. Her fingers brushed over a button on the dress. Her father, Harrison had carved a beautiful design of a flowered vine on each shiny, gold, button. Each little vine had eight little flowers on it, and it made her think of her folks. She longed to see her parents again, and her three older brothers Micah, Amos and Bennet, and her two younger sisters, Callah and Pearl. The dress meant much to her, as it made her think of home and family... Much like her new friend Laura did, she used her dress for her first teaching job at the young age of sixteen.
She put on her lacy, white, nightgown and sat on the bed. She proceeded to take out her braided bun and brush out her long, reddish-brown hair. Her hair was wavy from being tucked up all day and it seemed to glow in the lamplight. Cage loved it when Arrah brushed out her hair every night, and he was proud to know that this young lady, his wife, was the only woman he would ever see in that way. Just the thought made him smile. He sat on the bed behind Arrah and ran his fingers through her beautiful hair.
"I absolutely love your hair." He whispers, his warm breath tickling her ear. He kissed her neck, taking in the sweet scent of her vanilla-scented perfume. "But you know I love you more." He smiles at her. Arrah just stared at him. She thought she knew what he was trying to do. Cage always wanted to have their special time each night, but, Arrah wasn't quite feeling up to it this night. He tried kissing her on the lips, but Arrah turned her head and the kiss fell innocently on her cheek.
"Cage we can't do this here. Not tonight." She tells him, her voice but a whisper.
"Sure we can." Cage said, lifting his eyebrows. He tried removing her nightgown, but she pulls it back down and gets up. "Cage..." She says, glaring at him.
"What?" He says smiling at her. "I thought you wanted to try again for a baby."
"Cage, you know I do, its just that..." She said, facing the window, her arms crossed at her waist.
"What sweetheart? I don't understand." Cage said, his eyebows furrowing.
"It's just that...are you sure we're ready for something like that." She says, sitting back down, facing him, with the palm of her hand slightly pressed on the bed. "I mean we have so much that we have to do...We need to find land, build a house, a farm, a garden, we need to find a school for the boys,...and most importantly we need to try and live on our land for five whole years..." Arrah was saying this quite quickly until Cage put his finger to her lips, leaned in and kissed her gently. Cage looked at her, his forehead pressed against hers, and he held her small hand. "We'll do it all...Together." He smiled.
"Together." She whispered, smiling. "As long as we're together." She kissed his cheek. "And in God's timing." She added.
Arrah got under the patchwork quilt and when Cage undressed and was in his nightshirt, he joined her. "Goodnight." Arrah said, laying her head on his chest, closing her eyes and breathing in his scent. "I love you."
"I love you too, Arrah." Cage says, wrapping his strong arms around her. The two soon drifted off to sleep. They lay there together sleeping, until, in the early hours of the morning, Arrah felt a tapping on her shoulder. She wakes up a bit and finds a crying Leslie standing by the bed.
"Oh Leslie, what's the matter? Did you have a nightmare?"
"I'm wet." He says with tears streaming down his face.
"Oh Les, you could've woken me up sooner and I would've taken you to the outhouse."
"I'm sorry." Leslie said, sniffing, and wiping his nose with his hand.
"It's all right." She says, touching his shoulder. "Is your mat wet?"
"No...but the floor is...and my nightshirt."
Arrah covered her mouth to try to keep from laughing. She thought how Leslie said that was quite comical. "C'mon, lets get everything cleaned up. Show me where you,...well, you know..." She put on an extra robe of her husbands' and followed Leslie, cleaned it up, and got him dressed into another nightshirt.
"Is everything all right in here?" whispers Laura, standing in the doorway, holding a small hand-lantern.
"Yes Laura...I'm so sorry, but Leslie had a little accident...I've cleaned it up though." said Arrah, feeling quite embarrassed.
"It's all right,... these things happen...I know Rose always had such a time with wetting the bed!...All children do."
Leslie gets back into bed and Arrah's tucks him a little tighter under the covers. She plants a kiss on his forehead, and her hand brushes over his dark blond hair. "Sleep well, my little one."
"Goodnight Arrah." Leslie said before going to sleep.
"Well, now that both of us are up, why don't we go into the kitchen and have a nice cup of hot tea?" Laura asked, laying her hand on Arrah's shoulder.
"That sounds great!" Arrah says, smiling. "I know when I get up in the middle of the night, I never can get back to sleep!"
"You know what, Arrah? I'm the exact same way!" Laura said.
Both women laughed and headed into the kitchen. The two women talked for hours. They found out they had a lot in common. It was kind of funny because both of their husbands had blond hair, and they both had reddish-brown hair. Laura's was more brown than red, and Arrah's, well, hers was quite hard to describe. Hers was very red, but she had a lot of brown in it too. I guess to say the two colors really blended together into this auburn-looking color. At any rate it was very beautiful.
The two women somehow got on to the subject of schoolteaching.
"I was a teacher years ago...I started when I was just sixteen years old." Laura said taking a sip of her tea.
Arrah chuckled. "I wonder if sixteen is a magic number,...because that's when I got my first teaching job." Arrah smiled and thought back to her wonderful teaching days. "Oh I just adored teaching...I wish I could go back to it,...but you know how it is, I'm a married woman now, so I can't, I have other responsibilites...Plus, I don't think Cage would like it so much if I was working." She laughed slightly at her last comment.
Laura shook her head. "Isn't it a shame though?...I mean you work so hard for your teaching certificate and then you turn around and you have to give it up."
"Laura, I don't think it's all in vain," said Arrah while laying her hand on top of Laura's for a second. "I mean, we both married wonderful men, and we love them and they love us, that's all that really matters isn't it?"
Laura smiles. "You're right, Arrah."